Editorial: Long-overdue reforms for medical pot

FOR YEARS, there's been a lot of room for reasonable enactment of the 1996 voter-approved medical marijuana law.

Unfortunately, there has been little political leadership on this issue.

Many cities passed bans aimed at stopping medical marijuana dispensaries from opening, even though local voters endorsed the 1996 measure.

Council members, instead, listened to warnings from their police chiefs that dispensaries would invite crime and drug abuse.

Only in Fairfax did the Town Council reflect the will of local voters and allow a medicinal marijuana shop to open and operate for many years — without the perils predicted by other communities.

It was federal authorities who closed down the Fairfax operation by threatening its landlord.

Now, California law enforcement leaders are singing a different tune.

The 1996 Compassionate Use Act sought to legalize marijuana for medical uses, to allow people who were ill or dying to be able to obtain and use marijuana.

But local bans undermined voters' intent, with cities essentially saying that people who are sick or dying have to go somewhere else to get their medical marijuana.

The state Supreme Court, last year, upheld local jurisdictions' rights to ban marijuana dispensaries. It also cleared the legal path for local officials to control the sale of medical pot and the location of dispensaries.

Marin officials have jumped into the efforts to fulfill the promise of the 1996 measure.

County supervisors are now talking about coming up with rules to regulate the opening of medical marijuana dispensaries instead of banning them either by an outright moratorium or by prohibiting businesses that violate federal law.

Such action is welcome, although long overdue.

In 1996, 73 percent of Marin's voters backed the Compassionate Use Act. It is about time supervisors focus on making sure there are well-regulated dispensaries that can provide medical marijuana.

Now that federal authorities have halted their misguided attacks on small medical marijuana shops, there should be an opportunity to draft reasonable local regulations.

Voters in Colorado and Washington have voted to decriminalize personal use of marijuana use for people over 18.

The California Police Chiefs Association, a longtime critic and political road block of the state's medical marijuana law, has changed its tune and is now backing legislation that would require medicinal pot users to get prescriptions from their primary-care physicians, or by referral.

The bill, SB 1262, also would require the state to license medical pot dispensaries — a long-needed safeguard.

It is about time the message has shifted from outright bans to how we can safely fulfill the intent of the 1996 initiative.

The legislation could help create a greater level of medical oversight of California's medical marijuana law; however, there's little promise that Washington is going to take pot off its list of contraband.